An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in DNA, history & archaeology on Oct 31st, 2007
From phys.org: Team IDs ancient cargo from DNA.
For the first time, researchers have identified DNA from inside ceramic containers in an ancient shipwreck on the seafloor, making it possible to determine what the ship’s cargo was even though there was no visible trace of it.
The findings, by a team from MIT, the Woods Hole Oceanographic [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Oct 31st, 2007
From LiveScience: Ancient Headless Skeletons Found in Island Grave.
More than fifty headless skeletons have been unearthed in one of the oldest Pacific Islander cemeteries in the world.
The individuals were members of a socially complex society, traveling between islands hundreds of miles away, a new study suggests.
The finding could solve a long-held debate over whether the [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Oct 26th, 2007
Ok, now which of these do you want? Furniture that transforms has some fun stuff. The Trey chair would be handy, I think. For pure zany fun, the sofa car or sofa bike would be strong contenders.
Posted in history & archaeology on Oct 11th, 2007
From Haaretz.com: Dutch researcher claims to confirm Queen Jezebel’s seal.
For some 40 years, one of the flashiest opal signets on display at the Israel Museum had remained without accurate historical context. Two weeks ago, Dutch researcher Marjo Korpel identified article IDAM 65-321 as the official seal of Queen Jezebel, one of the bible’s most powerful [...]
Posted in books & lit on Oct 11th, 2007
I knew LibraryThing existed, but had never checked into it until last week. (Have you seen it? Do you use it?) It’s a catalog your books online site, and it’s heaven for book-lovers. The site explains:
Enter what you’re reading or your whole library — it’s an easy, library-quality catalog. LibraryThing also connects you with [...]
Posted in miscellaneous on Oct 11th, 2007
From the Guardian: ‘We said to them, ‘Come closer’ but they said to us, ‘Go further back”.
"First just one came out, then two, then three, four, five, six, seven, but there were more than that in total. We had a dozen machetes, a dozen knives and some axes and pots with us. We gave these [...]
Posted in language on Oct 3rd, 2007
From the Jerusalem Post: The Jews invent vowels.
"Roughly 3,000 years ago, in and around the area we now call Israel, a group of people who may have called themselves ivri, and whom we call variously ‘Hebrews,’ ‘Israelites,’ or more colloquially but less accurately ‘Jews,’ began an experiment in writing that would change the world."
That’s how [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Oct 1st, 2007
From the BBC: Carvings riddle stumps villagers.
Puzzled residents across Yorkshire are turning detective after mysterious stone heads were left outside their properties in the dead of night.
The sculptures feature the same carved symbol and come with a riddle attached.
Despite CCTV film showing a man leaving three heads outside a post office, their origin remains unknown.
So [...]